Today is Sunday, August 20, 2023. For those of us who cannot accept the fact that the major architect of a failed coup against the very government that he took an oath to uphold and preserve is actually running for president again, there is now a small movement to have him disqualified from running for the office ever again. This growing attempt to get him disqualified appears in an online article for 1945 by Joseph Ferguson and Thomas A. Durkin entitled “Sorry, MAGA: Donald Trump’s Actions Have Disqualified Him from the Presidency.”

Because of Dumpf’s criminal actions to keep him in power after losing the 2020 election, new conservative legal scholarship spells out how and why these actions – which were observed by the public over many months – disqualify the insurrectionist from serving in the presidency ever again. The writers of the article who are themselves lawyers express how this move could be put into effect.

They maintain the key to all of this is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which states that “No person shall . . . hold any office, under the United States . . .who, having previously have taken an oath . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Dumpf took that oath at his inauguration [a most sad day for America] on January 20, 2017.

Both Dumpf’s Georgia indictment, and his federal indictment in Washington, D.C., cite largely public information – and some newly unearthed material – to spell out exactly how he engaged in efforts to rebel against the Constitution and sought and gave aid and comfort to others who also did so.

Legal scholars William Baude and Michale Stokes Paulsen, conservatives themselves and members of the Federalist Society, have recently published a paper declaring that under the 14th Amendment, Dumpf’s actions render him ineligible to hold office.

The writers of this article believe the last indictment in the Peach State provides even more detail than the earlier federal one about how Dumpf’s actions have already disqualified him from office and shows a way to keep him off the ballot in 2024.

This provision of the 14th Amendment is not a theoretical bit of technical law, the conservative scholars contend, they say it was extensively used after the Civil War to keep former Confederate leaders from serving in the federal government, without being tried or convicted of any crime. This reality would counter the many clueless supporters of the insurrectionist who would argue that disqualifying their Dear Leader would be unfair without a trial and conviction.

For those who need a history lesson, few former Confederates were charged with crimes associated with secession, rebellion, and open war against the United States since most were pardoned by sweeping orders issued by President Andrew Johnson.

The avenue to disqualifying Dumpf from holding office now would be through state election authorities in which they themselves or, in response to a petition of a citizen in that state, could refuse Donald Frump a place on the 2024 ballot because of the automatic 14th Amendment disqualification.

The disgraced former president could certainly challenge the move in federal court, but the recent disqualification proceedings against former North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn (remember him?) provides a road map and binding legal precedent affirming the 14th Amendment as a valid legal ground for disqualification of a candidate for federal office.

The Georgia indictment against Dumpf and his allies exhaustively details extensive acts of lying, manipulation, and threats against Georgia officials, as well as a fraudulent fake elector scheme to illegally subvert the legitimate 2020 Georgia presidential vote tally and resulting elector certification.

Herr Dumpf’s failure to accomplish what is tantamount to a coup in Georgia and other swing states set the stage for the violent attack against the Capitol on January 6, 2021, that sought to achieve the same result – Dumpf’s fraudulent installation to a second term.

So Georgia has it in its own power to bar Dumpf from running and this one move could prod other states to follow Georgia’s lead. That would leave Dumpf with no way to credibly appear on the ballot in all 50 states, giving him no chance to win the electoral votes required to claim the White House in 2024.

Wouldn’t this be a lovely bit of accountability for the ultimate deplorable who somehow seized the White House in 2016? This would prevent him from trying to win back the Oval Office in over a year. And this all happens even before the very first trial of four gets under way.

If this could only occur, we would have to just worry about another Republican doofus becoming the frontrunner. But, I believe, there is very little likelihood that Florida’s Ron “DeMented” would take on that mantle. His campaign has been sputtering all along and he is universally despised by many people.

It’s getting late here since Elliot and I finished watching the very absorbing Netflix series Painkiller about the criminal Sackler family and its association with an opioid that has killed at least 300,000 Americans over several decades.

So have a good week.

Stay safe and be well.